Beautiful, cloudless, and haze free day. We are set for the Blue Mountain Hike on Sunday. Fire threat gone.
We started the day by going to a resale shop specializing in clothes from the 70s and 80s. I found a corduroy jacket similar to one I had in high school. They just don’t make clothes like that anymore! Nothing purchased here. Along the way we saw a nice jacket at a custom suit shop. I’m going to see if Tony, my tailor in Singapore can make me one.
Today I went back to the Maritime Museum and Terri did some shopping around Darling Harbour.
There was an interesting display about William Bligh. We learned about him when we visited Pitcairn last year. He was Captain of the HMS Bounty. The crew of the Mounty mutinied and put Bligh and supporters in a small craft and sent them away. Bligh made it back to land and 18 years later was appointed governor of New South Wales.
There were several ships in the harbour that were part of the museum. The first was the HMAS Vampire. This ship was a destroyer built in the 1950s.
It was fascinating to see the living and working conditions of this ship.
The turret where bombs were loaded for the huge guns.
A lone jar of vegamite remains on the shelf.
A submarine, the HMAS Onslow was next. Tighter spaces here then the destroyer. Boarding the sub.
The torpedo room was the first area to be seen. Look carefully and you can see the tubes.
Tight hallway, bunks in the right.
Galley.
Twin 16 valve engines. These engines are used only to recharge the batteries. They do not power the ship. The ship is powered by battery powered engines that can operate below the surface. The diesel engines need air intake to operate. The ship can stay underwater for about 4 days and then needs to surface to recharge the batteries. These engines recharge batteries in about 20 mins.
I had to pass through 3 or 4 of these openings to get from one side of the ship to the other.
Next ship at the museum was a replica of the HMS Endeavour. This is the ship James piloted on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 – 1781.
This volunteer gave a short lecture about Cook’s Voyage and the information about plant life that was collective and then captured for the record by the ship’s painters.
I guess what I’ll remember most is “this was where James Cook slept and over there and this was Joseph Banks room. There was an American too. A colonist. Being an American, he had a gun. He was the first man to shoot a kangaroo and eat it. ” I had my Mackinac Island, Michigan hat on and I’m sure the volunteer assumed I was packing heat.
I met up with Terri later and we stopped for a drink and then went to dinner at the Hunter and Barrel across the harbour from the museum.
Great steak dinner. No popcorn as a starter. Had to settle on dessert.
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